1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a heat sink for an electronic component mounted on a printed circuit board and, more particularly, to a heat sink which provides an easily removable, protective cover for a printed circuit board mounted electronic component.
2. Description of Related Art
Numerous types of electronic devices generate large amounts of heat during the operation thereof. If, however, the electronic devices were continuously operated in the presence of the high temperatures typically produced by the generated heat, the likelihood that the devices would be damaged due to continued operation in a high temperature environment increases dramatically. Accordingly, to protect electronic devices from damage due to continued operation in high temperature environments, many of such devices utilize a heat sink to dissipate heat. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,248,471 to Danchuk et al. discloses a heat sink for dissipating heat generated by a transistor. The heat sink comprises a case constructed of a metal material attached to a disk shaped body, also constructed of a metal material. Electrical conductors which function as the emitter, base and collector elements of the transistor, protrude therefrom and extend through the disk shaped body. In such a manner, heat generated by the transistor is dissipated through the electrical conductors to the disk shaped body.
Sufficient heat dissipation is of particular concern for highly sensitive electronic components such as fine pitch devices. In the past, heat dissipation for fine pitch electronic devices was accomplished by encapsulation techniques in which a block of a heat conductive material such as a polymer was placed over the fine pitch electronic device, thereby covering the entire device. While effective for its intended purpose, i.e. to dissipate heat generated by the fine pitch electronic device, there are several significant drawbacks to using encapsulation techniques to protect such devices from excessive heat accumulation. The most serious drawback is that, when protected by encapsulation methods, fine pitch devices are not readily repairable. To solvate the printed circuit board upon which a fine pitch device was mounted or to replace the fine pitch device itself required the removal of the silicon based encapsulation. As a result, repair techniques are quite expensive.
It is an object of this invention to provide a heat sink for a fine pitch electronic device.
It is another object of this invention to provide a readily removable heat sink for a fine pitch electronic device, thereby maintaining accessibility to the electronic device.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a readily removable heat sink for a fine pitch electronic device which also provides a protective cover for the device.